The Chicago Cubs have easily been MLB’s streakiest team in 2026. Due to their meddling in mediocrity, MLB insider Ken Rosenthal believes this might not be the year to go all in.
With a duet of ten-game winning streaks and a ten-game losing streak to pair, Chicago finds itself one game over the .500 mark as of June 10th.
With such a middling roster, it’s a fair question to ask how the Cubs fell from grace so quickly.
Chicago has been subjected to a slew of injuries. Their roster is missing out on key players like Justin Steele, Cade Horton, Shelby Miller, and more. For the most part, it’s been the pitching staff that’s sustained injuries; the offense has been downright inconsistent.
Alex Bregman, the Cubs’ star signing of the offseason, has been less productive via WAR than Louis Varland, a reliever on the Blue Jays.
In addition to Bregman’s slow start, Seiyaz Suzuki, Michael Busch, and Moises Balllesteros have all been cold. The Cubs went from one of baseball’s most revered offenses to a rather plain output.
With all the noise surrounding the team and the rest of the NL Central rioting for early momentum, Rosenthal weighed in on how the Cubs may approach the deadline.
Rosenthal Believes it’s Not the Cubs’ Year
In a recent appearance on Foul Territory, Rosenthal spoke about how the Cubs have been rumored to be in on Tarik Skubal. He’s inclined to believe they’d be hesitant.
“Aggressiveness is relative, as you said, because it’s based on how much you’re willing to take on payroll-wise,” Rosenthal said. “I don’t know how much willingness there will be from the Cubs to boost the payroll when they’ve already done it.”
“They’ve got a ton of pitching injuries still. They’ll just have to see where they are come late July, and determine then, for instance, if they wanna be a serious player if Tarik Skubal is available. Right now, if I’m the Cubs, I don’t know if I can justify it. He’s a rental, and you’re paying for one year with a team that has been up and down and a team that has been hit hard by injuries and had underperformance from some of their better hitters. Alex Bregman, the most prominent among them.”
AJ Pierzynski, a former MLB catcher and host of Foul Territory, then posed Rosenthal a question:
AJ Pierzynski’s Big Question
“Ken, is there any pressure on Jed Hoyer?” he asked. “I mean, they did go out and spend, they did go get Alex Bregman. This was supposed to be a good team, and they keep losing to the Brewers. They spent big money on Craig Counsell to bring him in. Is there any pressure on Jed Hoyer and Craig Counsell? Or is this just like, ‘Hey, they’re doing okay. They have a chance to make the postseason, and we’ll see what happens.’”
Rosenthal responded, “AJ, I haven’t thought about that. It hasn’t occurred to me. In part because Jed Hoyer just got an extension, I believe, last year. And Counsell, of course, still has years on his contract. If they flop, and if they fail to make the playoffs, and if Bregman is not going to be Bregman, and all these negative things happen, I would expect there to be noise. I don’t believe that Tom Ricketts, as their owner, would be particularly proactive. They’re committed to those guys.”
Rosenthal clearly believes the Cubs are stuck in baseball purgatory.
With a roster too talented to scrap but not quite good enough to maintain through 162, it could be a cold summer on the North Side.
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